


Four Fairy Tales They Brought With Them To Atlantis

by Welfycat



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: stargateland, Fairy Tales, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-17
Updated: 2012-02-17
Packaged: 2017-10-31 07:41:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/341641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Welfycat/pseuds/Welfycat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's just a coincidence that John is a little bit wolf like, and Parrish is climbing a bean stalk, and Elizabeth is in a tower, and Kavanagh is well, Kavanagh. Isn't it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Four Fairy Tales They Brought With Them To Atlantis

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Stargateland's Once Upon A Time challenge.  
> Content Notes: None.  
> Author Notes: All section titles are lyrics from Stephen Sondhiem's **Into The Woods**.

1\. **When You're Talking to Your Meal**  
Rodney shrugged uncomfortably in his red shirt as he walked the distance between the mess hall and the infirmary with a basket tucked under one arm. He felt a little bit like he was wearing Star Trek "command red" and he briefly contemplated determining the number of people on Atlantis who had died wearing a uniform with a red shirt before deciding that was probably insensitive. Just in case, he needed to take the time to do laundry soon - somewhere in between saving the city (again) and taking treats to his wounded teammate.

Sheppard had gotten bitten by a Wraith the last time they were off-world. Actually bitten with the Wraith's teeth, not his feeding hand or anything like that. Rodney was starting to think that Sheppard really would do _anything_ to get out of paper work. In either case he'd been confined to the infirmary and was lounging around unproductively in bed while Rodney did the real work on Atlantis. Only after remembering the dearth of desserts served in the infirmary had Rodney felt compelled to bring Sheppard something to eat so he wouldn't starve to death under Carson's watchful gaze.

Rodney reached in the basket and pulled out another cupcake to snack on while he walked. Of course when he'd told the kitchen staff that the treats were for Sheppard they'd gone all out to give him all sorts of great stuff; tarts, and sweet breads, and cupcakes, and four chocolate pudding cups. Rodney had already eaten two of those. It was a long walk between the mess hall and the infirmary.

He brushed the crumbs away from his mouth as he approached the infirmary doors and went inside and straight over to Sheppard's bed.

"Sheppard, what big hair you have!" Rodney exclaimed as he stared at John's wild bed head that came from sitting around all day without a shower and the judicious application of hair gel.

"The better to kill you with, McKay. Shut up and hand over the pudding cups," Sheppard demanded with irritation as he scratched at the edges of the large bandage that was covering one of his arms.

"Well that's gratitude for you," Rodney grumbled as he handed over the basket.

2\. **There Are Giants in the Sky**  
David Parrish stood in greenhouse number three and looked up. And up. And up. He had gotten a handful of beans while he'd been trading off-world the previous day and hadn't really expected them to do much. He'd taken them anyway, giving the mysterious trader a container of the Athosian milk in return because he figured it was the right thing to do. That evening he'd been walking through the greenhouses to check on a few plants before he went to bed and he'd suddenly remembered the beans in his pocket when he came across a patch of empty soil. Not knowing how they would best grow David had set them in the hole, covered them with soil, and watered them before leaving the greenhouse for the night.

When he'd checked in for work in the morning he'd done his usual rounds, making notes on various plants and watering them as he went, until he'd walked into greenhouse number three.

"Wow," he said as he looked up to where the glass ceiling had broken wide open to allow the huge beanstalk to reach up into the sky. Hesitantly David reached out and touched the plant, half expecting it to be a illusion of some kind, and was a little surprised to find the rough foliage solid under his fingers.

"I could practically use this as a ladder," David said as he touched the sturdy leaves that appeared at regular intervals. As soon as the idea came into his mine David knew that he had to try. After all, he hadn't come all the way to another galaxy to just ignore a giant climbable beanstalk when the opportunity arose. He placed his hands on two of the stems and hoisted himself up, still surprised when it actually worked. Deciding he wouldn't go far, just far enough to see how big it had grown, David started climbing up and out of the greenhouse ceiling.

"David! Wake up! Emergency medical team to greenhouse three!"

David opened his eyes and stared up at Evan and at the opaque ceiling of one of his greenhouses. "What happened?"

"David, thank goodness," Evan said, his fingers moving from where they had been resting on the pulse point of David's neck.

David sat up and stared at the mess in his greenhouse. There was a giant beanstalk fallen across the floor and out the side of the shattered greenhouse wall where it had gone down. "What happened?" he asked again.

Evan collapsed down to the ground and stared at David. "I could ask you the same thing. I came in here to find you hysterical and screaming for someone to chop down the beanstalk. I figured it was some kind of evil psychic beanstalk so I cut it down and then you collapsed."

"I climbed it. All the way into the clouds," David said, the memory suddenly coming back to him.

"Maybe hallucinogenic might be the more appropriate description," Evan said with a small smile.

David shook his head and looked around the greenhouse before he spotted what he was looking for. "No, look! I found a harp that contains the spirit of an Ancient who got trapped in a castle in the clouds." David dragged the golden harp that had been hidden by some falling foliage.

Evan stared. "Are you sure you want to touch that?"

David quickly removed his hands. "Probably not."

"Sounds like you had quite the adventure today. Want to go for a late dinner after the doctor checks you over?" Evan asked.

David looked around and realized that the sun was setting outside and the sky was gradually getting darker. "Wow, I spent the whole day up there."

Evan chucked again. "You spent the whole day somewhere alright."

3\. **High in Her Tower**  
Elizabeth sighed as she leaned against the open windowsill. She'd been up in this tower for what felt like forever. She didn't know how she'd gotten up there but an Ancient hologram kept coming and going as it told her pieces of the history of the world they were on. The historian part of her found it fascinating and she paid as much attention as she could while the Ancient hologram was speaking. For the most part she was just frustrated and tired of waiting to be rescued like some damsel in distress. Elizabeth prided herself on not being a damsel in distress and therefore, even as she sat at the open window and waited, she kept her composure and steadily breathed in the early evening air.

The tower was impossibly tall and it had no doors that she could find. The food was fresh and plentiful though she had no idea how, and even though the rescue team had found her they had yet to find a way to communicate with her or get close. The tower had rebuffed the puddle jumper and so far any attempts by her staff, who she couldn't quite tell who was who from this height, to climb the tower had been unsuccessful. If she could figure out how to convey the plan, Elizabeth was just about ready to use the odd fiber rope she'd found to try and climb down herself. Surely someone down there would make sure she didn't break her neck in the process.

Elizabeth found herself examining the rope over and over again and a few days later, after a dozen days in the tower, she attached the rope to the windowsill and threw it over the edge. Either they would figure out her plan or not, but she was coming down.

4\. **I Wish to go to the Festival**  
Peter Kavanagh grumbled bitterly to himself as he climbed through yet another maintenance tunnel. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair at all. Kavanagh knew that he was the most hated person on Atlantis, even Elizabeth hated him, but that didn't give them the right to treat them like this. Sure, McKay had sworn he'd send him back to Earth if Kavanagh didn't get in the tunnels and go fix whatever was wrong with the lights in the habitat section 2B. For some reason Kavanagh didn't want to go back to Earth, mostly because he wasn't any better liked there than he was here. So he put up with their arrogance and stupidity and didn't get a damn thing in return.

And now there was a city wide celebration and here he was in a tunnel covered in gunk and smelling horribly and his flashlight was flickering just as badly as the lights in habitat section 2B. They were celebrating their alliance with the inhabitants of a lovely planet where Kavanagh had visited once. The people, the Tulonians, had been friendly and courteous, and their technology wasn't half bad for a people who had been constantly persecuted by the Wraith. Kavanagh _wanted_ to be up at that celebration. He had been told he would be allowed to go with the rest of the science staff, as an important member of the technology team in the Atlantis labs, but at the last minute he'd been assigned this stupid and mundane task instead.

Kavanagh reached the panel that should house the lighting systems for the area and sunk down to the filthy floor in his already filthy uniform. "I just wanted to go to the party," he said to himself moments before he touched the panel and a current of electricity passed through him.

Later he was told it was all a dream from having his brain nearly fried by the electricity that had coursed through his body, but Kavanagh so clearly remembered a giant Athosian gourd, a flying lady in a dress, and a really nice Tulonian man who had offered to take him back to his planet with them. Too bad it had been a dream, though none of that explained the disappearance of his right shoe. Kavanagh blamed it on a juvenile prank by one of the other scientists and went back to work with a heavy heart.


End file.
